In the 2024–2025 academic cycle, Gies College of Business began recruitment for the Business Pathways Academy, an intensive support program for students pursuing business degrees. The first cohort of Academy participants arrived on campus this fall.

Leading the initiative was Leslie Lewis (right), senior associate director of academic success at Gies Business.

Lewis has worked in education for more than 20 years, starting as a public school teacher before pursuing administrative roles in higher education. Hoping to address many of the systemic challenges she faced in her own classroom, she came to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign to pursue a master’s degree in educational policy.

While earning her degree, she served as an intern in the admissions office and the Office of Minority Student Affairs (now The Jeffries Center). These experiences opened her eyes to a new world of need in higher education. Ever since, Lewis has been working hard to address that need.

Business Pathways Academy promotes critical skill building to help learners thrive in their foundational studies, transition to upper-level coursework successfully, and hone their leadership styles. 

“Business Pathways Academy is a built-in academic community for talent we may have otherwise lost,” said Lewis. “The participants we’ve identified are learners with strong potential for leadership and academic achievement. We feel that the support, mentorship, and community building this program provides will help ensure their success.”

Fostering a community of academic wellness

In her role at Gies Business, Lewis works to make holistic student success programming available to all students. Such programming includes wellness workshops, study tables, nutrition guidance, and collaborations with the College’s embedded counselor. This robust foundation of academic wellness services was critical to support the launch of Business Pathways Academy.

“These wellness programs are focused on making sure students are able to show up optimally as humans,” said Lewis. “As they are able to do that, then they can show up optimally as students.”

While academic wellness programs are available to every learner at Gies Business, the Business Pathways Academy intentionally directs students through those programs and services, providing ample checkpoints for them to interact directly with faculty and staff as they build their skills and become more comfortable with campus life.

Welcoming fresh perspectives to business

“Innovation means doing things differently. When we recruit and admit students, we want to make sure that we are enrolling students with backgrounds that that can really speak to new and different ways of thinking,” said Lewis.

Business Pathways Academy’s first cohort comprises 39 learners, more than 85 percent of whom are first-generation college students.

Academy activities include site visits to corporate partner offices and guest lectures with industry professionals, augmenting learners’ interactions with the business world. Participants will also take seminar courses where they’ll have dedicated time to reflect about what they’re learning with trusted faculty and staff members.

Lewis believes the program will allow students to connect with one another and realize the talents and strengths they bring to the table because of their previous experiences.

Strengthening learners’ sense of belonging

The Academy is also designed to keep students connected with their peers and strengthen their sense of belonging in the Gies Business community.

“When you're taking early business core courses, those are courses that are not directly housed in the Gies learning environment,” said Lewis. “It's very easy to feel a disconnection from the College when your courses aren't on the business campus. It can be an even stronger disconnection if you're not completing that coursework in the traditional timeframe, because now you're entering your third or fourth semester and you still have coursework outside of the physical space.”

Lewis said the cohort design of the Academy gives students an instant community. Not only will learners be guaranteed to see some familiar faces in their classes, they’ll also retain a connection to the physical environment of Gies Business, since all their Academy coursework takes place in business campus facilities.

“When we talk about a sense of belonging, we tend to talk about it like ‘Have I found my community?’ But we should also focus on a sense of knowing what belongs to you,” said Lewis.

Students may not always realize that things like career services, academic advising, peer mentoring, or free tutoring are available to them. Business Pathways Academy will emphasize just how critical those resources are, and it will empower learners to use them.  

Setting a new standard for student success programming

Launching Business Pathways Academy required collaboration across the College and beyond, said Lewis.

“I’m a big Marvel fan, and when I think of what Student Success at Gies was and what it is now, it really is a joining of timelines,” said Lewis.

A program like Business Pathways Academy sits directly at the convergence of educators like Lewis developing programs to meet student needs, College stakeholders working to consolidate and strengthen those programs, and companies investing in the success of future employees.    

The Business Pathways Academy is supported largely by donor funding, including a sizeable community grant from State Farm®. 

Lewis said she counts herself very fortunate to work among a community of people who collaborate and innovate specifically to help students start strong and finish their education on a high note.  

“We all want a quality experience for our learners,” Lewis said. “Business Pathways Academy is just an intersection of all the work we do at Gies to do what's right by students.”